Why Do Flowers Smell Sweet?
Although garden enthusiasts have long planted flowers for their fragrance, flowers do not have scent in order to entice humans. Their goal is to lure insects to their petals in order to reproduce. However, those crafty plants have hooked humans along the way. Scent is believed to affect a person's mood and has been used for thousands of years in the form of scented oils, giving birth to the practice of aromatherapy. The popularity of the scented candle today only confirms this trend is not over. Does this Spark an idea?
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Reproduction
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The primary reason flowers have scent is to attract pollinators. These insects spread the flower's pollen and the flower can fulfill its purpose, which is reproduction. Usually these scents are also pleasant to a human's sense of smell but not always. Over the centuries, flowers have specialized their scent to attract certain insects and repel others. For example, the Rafflesia and the North American paw paw smell like rotting meat to attract flies, which will then spread the flower's pollen and aid in reproduction.
Essential Oils
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The essential oils, or aromatic compounds, found in flowers produce scent. These oils are a combination of chemical acids and alcohol. The amount and ratio of oil and alcohol gives flower their individual fragrances.
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Timing
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Another indication of flowers' adaptability is when they bloom. Most flowers bloom during the day, when insect pollinators are the most active. But to avoid competition, some flowers reserve their blooms, and their fragrance, for night. Such plants as moon flower or night-blooming jasmine bloom at night, Night-blooming flowers are usually light-colored or white to attract moths. Some of these flowers may bloom during the day, but they don't release their fragrance until evening.
Diversity
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Different plants produce different scents in varying degrees. For instance, orchids produce 100 kinds of essential oil. Other flowers produce fewer than ten. Scientists have been working on adjusting the levels of aromatic compounds found in flowers to produce new scents or change a flower scent's intensity
History
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Humans have sought to bottle the fragrance of flowers for centuries. In the ancient world, fragrant resins were literally worth their weight in gold. Once distillation, and the extraction of essential oils, was invented in the 1400s, so was the perfumery industry. Essential oils were painstakingly extracted from fragrant flowers. It takes thousands of flowers to make 1 oz. of essential oil. The idea of adding distilled alcohol to stabilize the oil didn't come for another 200 years, but again transformed the business of making perfume.
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References
- Photo Credit pink flowers and a bumble bee image by thea walstra from Fotolia.com
